Cooling innovation to fetch $3 mn

In a bid to prevent up to 100 gigatons of carbon emissions by 2050, and reduce up to 0.5 degree Celsius of global warming by 2100, the Indian government on Monday announced a $3 million award in collaboration with an American enterprise.

The Ministry of Science and Technology joined hands with Mission Innovation and Rocky Mountain Institute in the US to launch the two-year-long competition for breakthrough in innovations in cooling technology.

The "Global Cooling Prize" aims to spur the development of a residential cooling technology that will have at least five times less climate impact than the standard Room Air Conditioning (RAC) units.

"The health and productivity of billions of citizens living in tropical and subtropical climates will be affected by rising temperatures," Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a statement.

"The government supports this innovation challenge, which aims to develop sustainable and efficient technology to provide thermal comfort to all, and invites applicants from around the world," Vardhan added.

He was speaking at a two-day Global Cooling Innovation Summit here.

Vardhan urged innovators to participate and develop a super-efficient technology that would be accessible and affordable to people around the world.

Up to 10 short-listed competing technologies would be awarded up to $200,000 each in intermediate prizes to support the design and prototype development of their innovative residential cooling technology designs.

The winning technology will be awarded at least $1 million to support its incubation and early-stage commercialisation.

The initiative is backed by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who said that if something was not done to arrest the growing global impact of air conditioning on the climate, the Paris Agreement goals would be derailed.